Asari Help
by slashuur
Summary: Sometimes even one of the galaxy's greatest hero's needs some help outside the battlefield from time to time. Series of usually unrelated oneshots.


Eric Shepard instantly jolted out of bed. He had assumed he had another nightmare from the Prothean Beacon engraving visions into his mind. He was trying his hardest to sort out what everything from the visions meant. It was just one problem after another lately, from Saren and Sovereign. Feros was a nightmare. He was able to save the colony, but the Thorian was a complete abomination that begged for apocalypse. Then he heard something, three distinct knocks on his cabin door. He had already addressed his crew about the matter of his privacy. And only one woman, one very specific woman, was allowed to come into his room whenever she wanted.

"Who is it and what the hell do you want?" he asked groggily and impatiently, wanting to get back to sleep.

"It's me, Eric, Liara…" she said, revealing herself to Shepard..

"Oh, come in then." Eric said, waving his hand over.

Liara shyly opened the door and tippy-toed over to a chair near her Commander's bed.

"Sorry for my intrusion. Did I wake you up?" she asked scooting closer to Shepard.

"Yea, either that or it was another nightmare." He said, sitting up in his bed.

"Oh, if it was me I am sorry." She apologized.

"It's ok, I'm glad you're here anyways." He admitted with a smirk.

"Anyway, Commander, I wanted to ask you something."

"What is it, Liara, is something wrong?" he asked with genuine concern.

"What? Oh no everything is fine for the most part. Its just I was feeling sort of lonely in that cramped sleeper pod and I was wondering if I could sleep here." She asked.

"Uh sure…I could get my sleeping bag and sleep on the ground and you could use the bed so-."

"Actually, I was thinking of sleeping in the same bed, if that is alright with you, Shepard."

"I thought you'd never ask Liara." He said, patting the spot next to him, signaling for her to lie down next to him.

"Hold on, I'll get ready. She said, walking over to the other side of the room further from the bed.

She began to take her study uniform off. Eric was surprised and pleased to see that she wore almost nothing under her uniform, just a bra and panties. Asari were probably the closest thing to humans, aesthetically at least. She dropped her uniform on the ground and approached the commander very slowly, letting him visually take in every curvature and aspect of her body. She lied down on the bed next to him and draped her arms around his neck, pulling herself closer and pressing her body up against his.

"So, how are you feeling now, Eric?" She asked, knowing the Commander had gone through a lot lately, and still had a lot ahead of him.

"Not as well as I'd like to, everything's sore and I keep having these nightmares about the visions. It's not that scary or anything but it really manages to keep me up at night. Even when I'm stone dead tired it's hard to stay asleep for more than a few hours without waking up in a cold sweat or shivering or something. I'll deal with it though, and it'll probably die down significantly when all this ends, if it ever does." He explained morosely.

"By the Goddess that sounds horrible, Eric." She stated, somewhat shocked at how nonchalantly he sounded during his explanation.

"It's alright Liara. I've dealt with it, Mindoir, Akuze, everything. I've faced that every day there's a significant chance of it being my last. I'm actually glad about my experiences and struggles. It's what keeps me going and lets me know that, as bad as things are, things could be worse, and I can do my part to stop that from happening." Eric said, trying to allay his partner's concerns.

"Oh, I see. So you are truly at peace with what happened?" she asked, still someone concerned.

"For the most part, yes. I can't really say it doesn't slip back into my mind from time to time but it's not nearly as bad as it used to be." The Spectre explained.

"What do mean it slips back into your mind?" The young asari continued to question the warrior.

"It's not anything intense most of the time. And it's usually happening in my subconscious so I wouldn't be able to explain. But anyways, I'm really tired so how 'bout we just go to sleep now?" He proposed, trying to dodge the subject.

"Alright then," she said while turning off the commander's desk lamp and crawling back into bed.

**ONE HOUR LATER:**

Liara stayed up next to Shepard. She wanted to wait until he had completely fallen asleep. She wanted to really get into his mind. To really see what he thought about what he'd been through and how it made him feel about the situation at hand…and about her. She turned his body over so he would face her. She opened her eyes as they turned pitch black. She had gained access the commander's mind. She had prepared earlier to be ready for the intensity of the joining. Joining with Eric was even more exhausting because of his strong personality. She was in his subconscious, in the very depths of his mind. She could see memories that Shepard wouldn't even know he had.

She was instantly transported to a small home, a human home. Then she realized something. It was Mindoir! Yes, where Shepard grew up. The vision fast forwarded to Shepard's family and friends being slaughtered and mutilated by Batarian slavers, all in gory detail. Then the memories jumped to Akuze, where she could see many soldiers being sucked down into the depths of the ground by vicious creatures, Thresher maws. Shepard tried to help one onto its feet, one to have it violently cast down into a rocky abyss of death. She could see it all. Eric looked behind him, and could see the mangled bodies of two dozen marines, each being dragged down into the earth. They were all dead, every aspect of what they may have been…gone. The memories continued, but none of them were as traumatizing as the Akuze and Mindoir ones. They were mostly just memories of the Alliance. Then it stopped and she was transported to Therum, where she was rescued by Shepard and his compatriots.

She could see herself from Shepard's point of view. She looked beautiful, even when trapped in the Prothean barrier. From his point of view, she had a sort of white, ethereal light around her in his memories. He had surprisingly pleasant memories of his time with her. She could see all the conversations they had together. He loved her...she was his last chance at true, lasting happiness.

She released the connection between their minds, and then looked at Shepard. He was awake…and looking at her, tears were slowly flowing from his eyes.

"Oh…Eric, I am sorry…" she whispered softly, bringing her hand to his cheek.

"I-I'm scared Liara. T-that it'll h-happen again and I'll lose e-everyone that I kn-know and love…j-just like before." He said shakily.

"Eric, please. I am safe, everyone is safe. Jenkins, the one you told me about earlier, was just an unfortunate accident." She said, trying to comfort him.

"I-I like to think that but t-there must have been something I c-could have done to save him."

"Eric, please listen to me. Sometimes bad things happen to good people like Jenkins."

He couldn't hear her. He was crying to hard. She pulled him closer, hugging him and tracing the scars on his back. Each one an unpleasant reminder of what happened to the poor man and what is to happen soon.

After a few minutes Shepard looked up at the asari.

"Hello," she greeted, smiling.

"I'm sorry about that Liara, I just-I"

She put her slender blue finger on his lips to silence him. "You have nothing to be sorry about. You don't need to apologize."

"I know, it's just, this is stressful. There's the whole Spectre thing and that damn Ambassador Udina always nagging me and reminding me to make his job just that much easier. I'm supposed to be the best of humanity rolled into one person but it seems people already hate humans. It just feels like I'm working for a lost cause."

"You don't have to do this alone, Eric. You have your crew, the support of Captain Anderson, and me." She said, pressing his forehead against her own.

Eric put his head down, trying to relax and regain his composure. He rested his head on a pillow. Liara was still very close, he had his eyes closed but he could still feel her hands slowly running through his hair. He had noticed something strange about the pillow though. It was a very comfortable pillow, much more comfortable than his normal one. It was incredibly, almost arousingly soft. It was also a lot warmer. He moved his head a little to the left, there were two. Eric looked up and saw what he was resting on.

He instantly shot up. "Oh God, Liara, I'm sorry, it just felt so good and it won't happen again. Sorry."

Liara was happy that she wasn't the nervous one for once, and she found it cute that Eric was getting all wound up over something as small as lying on her breasts.

"It is alright Shepard. We are lovers now." She said with a small giggle, guiding his head back down to her chest.

"I am with you, Eric Shepard, always." She softly whispered into his ear as he fell asleep. She gently kissed both of his eyelids and cradled his head in her chest. She was glad she could help him find peace. It would take a long time to help the Commander, but she owed him a great dead already, it was the least she could do.


End file.
